An arbitration or mediation firm runs hearings, panels and settlement sessions where neutrality and confidentiality are the product. The people system must protect both, and keep case managers and panel members aligned.
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Share your requirementsAn arbitration or mediation firm offers a neutral place and process for parties to settle disputes outside regular courts. Senior arbitrators and mediators, often retired judges or senior lawyers, sit as panel members or are on call. A permanent team of case managers, registrars, drafters and administrators receives filings, fixes dates, circulates documents, books hearing rooms and keeps records. Hearings may be in person, online or both, and schedules shift when parties seek time. The firm earns trust from parties by being seen as fair and discreet, so a leaked paper, a wrong email address or a perceived tilt affects the entire business. Panel members are engaged case by case and are not staff, so the firm leads by process and not by authority. Related reading: HR for professional services. Case managers sit between demanding parties, busy neutrals and strict timelines, and carry far more responsibility than their titles suggest.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in arbitration and mediation firms. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Panel members are engaged case by case, with their own habits and calendars, and the firm cannot direct them like employees.
Each manages many matters at different stages, with dates, party demands and panel diaries to align.
One wrong attachment or an open file on a shared screen risks the firm's name.
Parties, counsel and panel members all need a common date, and adjournments cascade.
Links, recording, breakout rooms and failures during a session fall on the support staff.
A casual remark by staff to one side, or an uneven response time, can raise doubt about fairness.
Filings, orders and awards must be kept, retrieved and disposed of by rule, and ad hoc habits creep in.
Law firms and larger institutions hire experienced registrars, and the firm loses practical knowledge.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Policies, Compliance and Governance; HR Operations and Governance; Performance Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
The pieces a arbitration and mediation firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
How staff speak to parties, share information and treat all sides alike, signed at joining.
How staff speak to parties, share information and treat all sides alike, signed at joining. The policy set holds it.
A role description, a sensible limit on live matters and a clear backup for each case.
A role description, a sensible limit on live matters and a clear backup for each case. Use the documentation process.
Access by matter, secure sharing, rules for devices and what happens on exit, reviewed by a qualified professional.
Access by matter, secure sharing, rules for devices and what happens on exit, reviewed by a qualified professional.
A shared calendar, a standard notice period and a record of changes, so dates are not reopened casually.
A shared calendar, a standard notice period and a record of changes, so dates are not reopened casually.
A checklist for link, recording, waiting rooms and fallback, with a rehearsal before major sessions.
A checklist for link, recording, waiting rooms and fallback, with a rehearsal before major sessions. See the learning process.
How long each file type is kept, where, and who may open it, agreed with a qualified professional.
How long each file type is kept, where, and who may open it, agreed with a qualified professional.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Neutrality, confidentiality and conduct rules that staff sign and follow.
Role descriptions, caseload limits and matter handover notes.
Hearing logistics, online session practice and case manager skills.
Fair measures of case handling that value accuracy and discretion.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
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Every growing company reaches a point where the founder approving everything stops being speed and starts being the bottleneck. Twelve signs it has happened, and what to fix first.
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A practical design for an IT services appraisal cycle: when to run it, how to rate fairly across projects, and how to explain hikes so they hold.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Write a rule, train on it, treat all parties alike in timing and tone and have staff avoid casual remarks. Review complaints about bias carefully.
It depends on the type and stage of matters. Track live matters per person, look at complexity and set a sensible limit with a named backup.
Use a clear engagement letter, a style of communication that is respectful and consistent and a process rather than instruction. Take advice from a qualified professional on the terms.
Access by matter, secure sharing methods, no personal devices without rules and a clean exit routine. Review access quarterly.
A visible role, fair pay, a say in process and real learning. Many leave because the work is invisible, so recognise it.
We would look at case manager workload, the neutrality and confidentiality rules and how online hearings are supported. A conduct and confidentiality note with a caseload view is a likely opener. Scope, timing and fee are set out in writing afterwards.
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